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Ms. Marvel Volume 2 Issue 13

I love me some Ms. Marvel. The work G. Willow Wilson and crew have done with this character is nothing short of groundbreaking, along the lines that Stan Lee and company incubated with the creation of Spider-Man in the 1960’s. Kamala Khan will be the next big hero that lasts the tests of time. My grandchildren will be reading of her exploits which will make me quite happy.

That doesn’t mean each issue of Ms. Marvel is a classic however. Issue 13 of the second volume of Ms. Marvel stories was just bad. So bad that an Afterschool Special would shake its head at how terrible the story was.

The basic premise revolved around a Hydra agent who, thanks to Gerrymandering, led in the polls to be the new Mayor of Jersey City. A topical story in this day and age, especially with Gerrymandering being such a force for ill in our current political landscape. Yet this story went out of its way to be preachy. Hell, to say it was telling a story would be laying it on pretty damn thick. This issue of Ms. Marvel was more of a sermon about the importance of voting. And as an atheist, I have as much of an interest in a sermon as I do a colon exam.

The basic premise of the story is not bad at all. I like the idea of a hero fighting against a villain who tries to manipulate the system to their advantage. There is story material here. Yet the moral of the story, getting out to vote for candidates that matter, was handled so heavy handed that as someone who believes that Gerrymandering is one of the causes of the current political system we’re facing today, I could have cared less how Ms. Marvel handled this issue.

One criticism Conservatives throw at Liberals is that they love to preach. You often hear of Liberals going out of their way to preach to others how they should live their lives. There is truth in this statement. In this particular case involving Gerrymandering, while the message the Ms. Marvel team is trying to impart on their readers is true, regardless of where you stand politically, the way they handle relaying that message to the reader is so heavy handed that a reader with any modicum of common sense will see this for what it is. A poorly written story.

I love Ms. Marvel. I will continue reading this series because G. Willow Wilson is one of my favorite comic book writers today. This issue was just bad. It wasn’t representative of what this series has to offer.

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